I know I haven't posted in forever but this makes up for everything. http://koti.mbnet.fi/wehis79/kuvat/saksalaisetosaa.jpg This is a link to a German book about the miracle of life. I would say something about the content but it's a childrens book. You must see for yourself.
March 10, 2006
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I also found this hilarious, especially because the guy that gave us a tour of the UN in Austria called businesss majors "the enemy"
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Staff Union overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday over his proposal to radically overhaul U.N. operations.
The union, representing more than 5,000 staff at U.N. headquarters, said it was dismayed at many proposals in Annan's blueprint, especially the call to consider outsourcing a variety of U.N. services from translations to billing.
The disappearance of permanent appointments and a new policy on job mobility without job security implied a "fundamental attack against the international civil service," it said.
The resolution said "in the future, all staff may be at risk" and expressed "a statement of no confidence in the secretary-general and his senior management team."
The staff revolt is just the latest in a series of problems the U.N. chief has been forced to confront in recent months, including heavy criticism of his management in the scandal surrounding the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq.
Annan also has struggled to deal with allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers as well as the fallout from corruption charges linked to how the U.N. awards work contracts.
Asked to respond, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, "We fully understand that these are unsettling times for the staff, but we encourage all staff whether in New York or around the world to read the report fully."
"We look forward to the continuing dialogue we will have with the Staff Union and the discussion that managers will be having with their own staff in each department," he said.
Annan presented his proposal for an overhaul to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday and urged its 191 members to invest in management reform so the U.N. can help millions of people around the world facing hunger, disease, violence and terrorism.
The management overhaul won initial support from the United States and the European Union. But Annan and his senior team faced strong objections from U.N. staff, especially about outsourcing and job security, at a raucous and contentious meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The resolution was adopted at an emergency meeting of the Staff Union attended by more than 500 U.N. employees. Union leaders said it was approved overwhelmingly with two people voting "no" and fewer than 10 abstentions.
The proposals are a direct response to last year's investigation into the U.N. oil-for-food program which concluded that shoddy management was partly to blame for widespread corruption. The probe cited weaknesses in oversight, accountability, responsibility and structure.
Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, Annan said, the United Nations has been transformed from an organization that primarily held conferences and meetings to a global body engaged in peacekeeping, humanitarian relief efforts, electoral assistance and human-rights monitoring.
The Staff Union said it was "gravely dismayed" at this vision, calling the U.N. "the unique forum where all peoples of the world will continue to come together to discuss global issues, verbally and in writing, in all six official languages of the United Nations."
Annan's proposed shakeup would create a mobile civil service and convert 2,500 short-term peacekeeping positions into a new rapid reaction team whose members could be deployed quickly in urgent peacekeeping and political missions.
It would also allow a one-time staff buyout costing about $100,000 per person, modernize the U.N.'s information technology systems, and consider relocating, outsourcing and telecommuting a range of U.N. services including translation, editing, printing, publishing, payroll, medical and staff benefits, and information technology support.
Senior U.N. officials said the management reforms could cost about $500 million, but could eventually lead to savings of about the same amount.
The Staff Union's resolution expressed dismay that Annan, on February 22, assured staff representatives that "no strategic decision" had been taken on outsourcing and said the cost of relocating staff would outweigh any savings.
The resolution also expressed dismay that "no one is being held accountable for the failed systems and processes indicated in the report, and their enormous costs for this organization."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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I'm glad the entire country didn't go crazy after I left.
Greenfield: With port deal dead, do you feel safer?
By Jeff Greenfield
CNN Senior Analyst
Thursday, March 9, 2006; Posted: 9:45 p.m. EST (02:45 GMT)
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CNN's Jeff Greenfield
WASHINGTON -- Well, I don't know about you, but I feel so much safer now that I know those Dubains -- Dubai-ites? Dubaionians? -- won't be running those American ports after all.
No, it's going to be a strictly all-American operation from now on.
Yes, the folks in charge of checking those gazillions of tons of containerized cargo will be from the good old U.S. of A.:
- Our nation, whose forces have so vigilantly sealed our borders from illegal immigrants (not counting the 3 or 5 or 10 million or so who managed to make it here);
- Our nation, whose immigration and customs officials managed to keep out those dangerous agents of Osama bin Laden who intended to wreak murderous havoc on our soil (not counting the 19 who did make it; well, 1 of 20 isn't that bad);
- Our nation, whose airport security system has ensured that no 84-year-old wheelchair-bound great-grandmother slips past the scrutiny of a system that makes no distinctions based on race, gender, sexual preference, disability, or no-chance-in-hell-this-one's a terrorist;
- Our nation, whose existing port security system leaves upwards of 95 percent of incoming cargo unchecked, and whose ability to detect radioactive material is, to put it mildly, problematic.
Were there real questions about who should run the commercial operations of U.S. ports? Sure. And Dubai's past policies -- one of three nations in the world to recognize Afghanistan's Taliban regime -- could give anyone pause.
But let's not kid ourselves. What proved fatal to the plan was a potent mix of politics and a longstanding American impulse toward xenophobia, which has existed in tandem with our welcoming hand to others.
More than 180 years ago, a powerful movement -- the "Know-Nothings" -- organized around hostility to immigrants.
When we imported Chinese labor to build the railroads in the late 19th century, we also imposed strict limits on immigration.
We did the same thing to European immigrants in the 20th century. In wartime, we did worse -- deporting hundreds, maybe thousands of foreign-born Americans just after World War I, and locking-up Japanese-Americans in camps during World War II.
Even in peacetime, it's not hard to trigger Fear of the Foreign. When Japan's economic dominance threatened American power in the 1980s, politicians found it all but impossible to resist a lunge toward protectionism.
So it's no real surprise that the two parties outdid themselves in competing for the right to attack the port deal with the greatest vigor.
But I can't help wondering, if something deadly finds its way into the United States through our ports ... who are we going to blame then?
- Our nation, whose forces have so vigilantly sealed our borders from illegal immigrants (not counting the 3 or 5 or 10 million or so who managed to make it here);
March 9, 2006
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For the third time, I have successfully given someone directions in German. This two fold accomplishment means I know where things are and how to tell people where they are in German. 5 cool points for me. I am sitting in WU lobby using the university's wireless for reason to be explained later. An Austrian went yodeling on a mountain so high. Wait, no he didn't. An old man came up to me and asked where the Info center was. I was able to tell him how to get there. I am getting comfortable here. Day by day new things are made clear, thought I don't agree with the way certain things are done here I am starting to understand and respect the difference here.
The Bohemian dorm has given me a 6 year old modem to get wireless internet in my room. The piece of digital antiquity they gave me is not compatible with Windows XP and my wireless G card is too advanced to connect to their systems. Hence the lack of posting.
Picture time.
Here are some shots from Doebling. One of Vienna's most beautiful districts.
and here is where I live...
This is the Fernwarme. It's the town's incinerator. It was designed by Hundertwasser, who was a modern painter by trade but later decided to dabble in architecture. The man hated straight lines, thus the curved smoke stack with the gold thingy.
For those of you who can't read German, that sign says "The... Blumchen" which means the "little flower." If the entire sign were in German it would read "Das Blumchen" but English is slowly eroding the German language, that's a tale for another time.
More to come when the weather improves and I get my health back.
March 2, 2006
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Vienna is a great place to be Catholic. I Ash Wednesday Mass in a cathedral older than the USA. I was starting to think this city had lost it's faith and it's passion but being at Mass completely changed my view on a graet many things over here.
The full report on Vienna will be posted by the end of this weekend.
February 20, 2006
February 18, 2006
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Damn it, I happen to love my country
When J. Robert Oppenheimer was asked why he didn't leave the US when his security clearance was revoked and he was accused of being a communist sympathizer his response was "Damn it, I happen to love this country."
The more places I go and the more things I see, the more I love my country. There are a great many things that other nations do better than the US but over all the United States of America is the greatest country in the world, for now. The nation is faced with repercussions of lethal success. Comfort is being sought over achievement and innovation.
On the bus ride back from Graz several students were too drunk for their own good and very obnoxious. The Austrians have been encouraging us to drink since we arrived. There cut a deal with a local club for exchange students to get free drink on Monday nights from 8-9. I understand going to another country and wanting to cut lose, I've never done it but I understand it. My drunken countrymen, as upsetting as they were, didn't enrage me nearly as much as what I heard another guy on the bus say. "For the rest of the trip I am saying I'm Canadian." I bit a small piece of my cheek off instead of doing what I should have done. I feel bad for doing nothing and won't let it happen again.
If you don't like the US and you want to be Canadian, change your citizenship. That's a right you have and a choice you are allowed to make as US citizen.
Not everyone in the USA loves their country. That's a damn shame. If there is something you don't like there are systems in place to fix things and if those systems don't work there are systems in place to change those systems.
Two days ago a Russian ask me "Is the US as safe as it seems in the movies?" I was stunned. The US is constantly under attack in the movies, if it's not hostile radicals, it's plague bearing monkeys or "evil" corporations. I asked her what she meant and she said that in the movies the detectives or FBI or whoever always stops the bad things from happening. I never though about things that way or realized that the real life endings aren't as happy in other parts of the world, like when the rebels took over that school in Russia. Today I found out that Slovenia has problems with bears roaming the streets and attacking people.
The US is fending off guerrillas that want to destroy it and has prevented an attack for over 4 years and there are countries in Europe that have problems with bears. The US isn't perfect and it won't be as long as the idiots are allowed to roam free with out recompense for their actions and others hide their nationality for fear of being grouped with the idiots.
I am very happy in Austria, it is a beautiful country with a rich history and exquisite confections, but I could never live here. I am citizen of United States of America and proud of it.
February 17, 2006
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The people, the food, the churches, the way they have unwittingly succumb to American culture and forfeit parts of their own. It's all too much for words now.
I wish that my very Bohemian dorm didn't have a two month waiting list for wifi cards so I could use an English keyboard to write something long an prolific as well as IM most of you. Sadly, it'll be a while.
Auf Wiederschauen.
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